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Yom chamishi, 14 Kislev 5769.I had the nicest cup of coffee this morning with a fellow blogista. (Despite the slightly South American flavor of that term, I think it really would be the Hebrew word for “female weblog author.” Though Benji would probably spell it “blogeestah.” Ehhhhhh…. but I’m no lengweech aikspoort.)

Anyway — back to coffee. She and I have been trying to get together since the JBlogger’s Convention, many months ago. So today, we finally did it. Happily, we did have lots of other things to talk about besides virtual reality; but we did touch on our mutual fascination with friends who say things like “I just don’t get the whole ‘blog’ thing. I mean, what’s the big deal with ‘blogs’?” Oh — and my favorite: “Yeah but, how can you spend so much time with blogging and bloggers? I mean, they’re not even real.”

It was nice to share experiences and impressions with someone who “gets it.” Frankly, we are probably as mystified as to why our friends don’t adore the blogosphere as they are about our seeming obsession with it. So here’s a little thumbnail analysis of “why we do it.”

We like to write. And it’s easier now than ever!

Blogging keeps us from having to repeat everything we write to each of our friends individually. (Sorry. While we love you, one can only give over the story of “what’s happening” so many different ways before even the writer gets bored with repeating herself.)

What a great semi-permanent way to keep that journal!

It’s fun to communicate with other people who like to write.

Secretly, we wouldn’t mind being published.

Hey! We can publish ourselves, thereby avoiding the pain of countless rejection letters.

“Hanging out,” even virtually, with like-minded souls (politically or religiously, or sharing similar life experiences, difficulties, or interests) is very empowering and validating.

We had a very nice time sharing our aliyah experiences, discussing our pride in our amazing kids (puh-puh-puh), and marveling at one another’s life stories. We also talked about the growing grassroots power of the internet: the freedom to set one’s own agenda in commentary, rather than being muzzled by the agenda of a company or a sponsor; the ability for two-way sharing of ideas; the immediacy of “man in the street” journalism (such as that which kept us all glued to the twittered reports during Mumbai).

I can absolutely verify that she is 100% real.

I’m looking forward to reading her latest opinion or adventure in her next blog post.